Modern television systems effectively process an amazing quantity of audio-visual input to present viewers with high quality programs from a wide variety of sources. Many of these sources are broadcast networks that send programming through cables or over the airwaves. Other sources may be more local or limited. Private networks, for example, may transmit programming that is intended only for a limited audience, and many homes are equipped with videocassette recorders (VCRs) or other recording devices which, once they hold recorded material, are programming sources themselves.
Modern viewers, therefore, have a great deal of programming choice. As most of the programming is generated for commercial reasons, program producers have an interest in determining what viewers want or like to watch so that popular programming can be used as a guide to designing programs for the future. In addition, in order to cope with the huge quantity of available programming there are various devices for allowing viewers to selectively focus on a relatively small portion of it, should they choose to do so. For example, a viewer may simply choose to subscribe to only certain channels of programming. For whatever purpose it is collected, however, it is often useful to collect data regarding the viewing preferences of a television user (viewer). There are several ways in which to collect helpful data on what it is that people prefer to watch. First of all, viewers can simply be asked. A given program might be shown to a test audience, and then its members queried to determine their reaction. Although generally efficacious, this approach does have several drawbacks. For one thing, it requires a great many interviewers to ask the questions and record the answers. Then the answers must be properly interpreted if an accurate reading of viewer likes and dislikes is to be made. For these reasons, this approach, in general, is of value only with a limited test audience. Because the viewer response is to be collected from only this limited audience, these viewers must be properly selected to ensure their responses will be representative of the viewing public at large.
Interview personnel are not required, of course, if the test viewers are simply asked to supply answers to predetermined written questions, write a description of their response, or “vote” for which of a plurality of programs they enjoyed the most. This approach is also subject, however, to even more errors in interpretation and carries with it a problem that might be referred to as respondent fatigue. This is the situation where the test viewer may at some point get tired of answering questions or filling out forms, and, if so, complete them carelessly because all they now desire to do is fulfill the agreed assignment. There also exists the problem of purposely misdirected answers, where the viewer senses the purpose of a question and, for some reason, provides a misleading response. For example, programming that is attractive to a viewer might be explicit or violent enough that the viewer does not want to admit its pleasing nature. However well motivated, such behavior corrupts the testing process.
And, of course, the results are only as good as the questions asked and the answers given. Any interview script or written questionnaire must be carefully designed to yield accurate responses, even from a sincere and earnest respondent. All of this requires time, money and other resources, and so only a limited audience may be tested. However carefully the testers try to assemble test audiences to provide statistically valid samples, they are limited to those having the willingness to respond to questions. This problem exists even where viewers are called at home and questioned about how they watch, and about their viewing habits in general. And with any of the methods described above, the problem persists that generally the viewer bases the report of their reaction on the viewed program as a whole, and not on the specific segments of the program that may have produced a positive or negative response. In many cases, such responses may be intuitive or subliminal, and even an earnest viewer may not be able to pinpoint exactly what portion of a program was most desirable. Finally, the questions and answers, or other inquiry mechanism must either follow the entire program or interrupt it before it is finished. In either case, the integrity of assessing the audience reaction is compromised. As mentioned above, viewer feedback may also be used merely to simplify their own channel selection process. But even where viewers simply try to remember which programs they like and adjust their channel selector, the results may be far from perfect. Their recollection may be faulty, and the channels they select may not be well matched to their real preferences. In any case, they must perform the selection manually, and may procrastinate in doing so because it is too much trouble.
Needed then is an unintrusive and automatic method of gauging audience reaction to television and similar programming that can be implemented over a wide testing audience, and that provides accurate feedback to the party conducting the test, or simply to an automatic program-selection assistance system. The system and method of the present invention provide just such a solution.